Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson has revealed that former U.S. President Donald Trump once asked her out—on the very day she divorced actor-director Kenneth Branagh.
Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, the 66-year-old actress recalled receiving a call from Trump in 1995 while she was in her trailer filming Primary Colors. At the time, Trump was a businessman and had recently divorced his second wife, Marla Maples.
“He said: ‘Hello, this is Donald Trump.’ I thought it was a joke and asked: ‘How can I help you?’ Maybe he needed directions,” Thompson quipped.
Trump invited her to stay at one of his “beautiful places” and suggested they have dinner. Thompson politely declined, replying, “That’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you.”
Thompson’s marriage to Branagh lasted from 1989 to 1995. While they initially cited busy work schedules for the split, it later emerged that Branagh had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter during the filming of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
In a 2022 interview with The New Yorker, Thompson said she was “utterly blind” to her ex-husband’s affairs, admitting, “It’s easy to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.” She described feeling “half alive” in the months leading up to the divorce.
Thompson has since remarried and now shares two children—daughter Gaia, 25, and adopted son Tindy, 36—with her husband, actor Greg Wise.
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